Pence enjoying opposite-field success in bounce-back season

SAN DIEGO — All is not perfect with the Astros, but the offense is just fine, thank you.

And all is not perfect with the offense despite it being in the top half of the National League, but outfielder Hunter Pence is just fine, thank you.

And while all is not perfect with Pence — “there’s no perfection,” the humble outfielder says — this is about the closest to it that he has been in a while.

Thursday, Pence entered San Diego on a 13-game hitting streak and on pace for the best of what will be four full seasons and an invitation to Phoenix for his second All-Star Game appearance.

In a year when general manager Ed Wade, hamstrung on a free-agent budget, put much of the onus for better starts on Pence and Carlos Lee after the Astros got off to a historically bad pace last year, Pence is holding up his end.

He entered the Padres series hitting .317, up 51 points from his first 56 games of last season, with similar increases in on-base percentage and slugging percentage, thanks in large part to an improvement from seven to 17 doubles.

Seeing the ball well?

Don’t be so fast to dismiss it as a cliché, Pence said.

Universal truth

“I think that’s exactly what you need to do to hit,” Pence, 28, said. “The more you can concentrate on seeing the ball, the better you’re going to hit.

“I try to be ready early, and I think sometimes the game gets sped up on you when you’re not ready early enough and not seeing it well enough.”

And just because he’s ready early doesn’t mean he’s early. Pence has hit more balls to right field, his opposite field, than last year, 19.3 percent vs. 15.2 percent.

With more success as well. He has more extra-base hits to right field (two home runs and three doubles) than he did all of last year (no home runs and four doubles) according to Baseball-Reference.com.

“I think he’s starting to realize some of the ability that he has,” manager Brad Mills said. “That he’s able not only to get hits to right field but to drive it in the seats to right field and get extra-base hits to right field.”

Whatever it takes

But there are red flags, and Pence indirectly addressed one when he talked about what’s contributed to his hot streak over the past 13 games; he’s hit .436 during the streak.

“A combination of finding holes — hitting it where they’re not — and also getting good pitches,” Pence said.

It’s the first portion of that statement that’s alarming.

Pence’s season is based on the foundation of a batting average on balls in play that’s 72 points higher than last year’s mark and 109 points higher than in last year’s first 56 games.

This year’s figure settles in at an extraterrestrial .376 amid a strikeout rate twice as high as last year’s first 56 games.

Less so for hitters than for pitchers, but those averages tend to regress to a league average around .300 over the course of a year, which could foretell some drop.

But he’s getting line drives more than last year and with his increased power to right field, there is no reason to forecast a significant collapse.

All might not be perfect, but the results are as good as we’ve seen since Pence burst into Houston in 2007.